Lockheed collects food for Hungry Kids Project

Lockheed Martin Leadership Association Board of Directors members Olga Holmann and Tom Donnan pose beside the truckload of food items collected to donate to the Hungry Kids project. Items will go to students in need in the Humboldt Unified School District. (Courtesy photo)

The Lockheed Martin Leadership Association (LMLA) recently conducted a food drive to benefit the Hungry Kids Project, raising money to buy approximately 700 food items to help childhood hunger locally in the Humboldt Unified School District.

The Hungry Kids Project helps fill the gaps for students who are receiving daily school meals, but are less likely to receive the same nutrition at home on the weekends because of financial hardships. Some of the children go without food from lunchtime Friday until breakfast on Monday morning, according to Tami Hitt-Wyant, director of food and nutrition for the Humboldt school district.

"This project is an amazing opportunity to give directly to the students of our district," Hitt-Wyant said. "Hungry kids cannot focus on learning. I have looked in the faces of students on Monday morning when they come in to eat school breakfast and they tell you they have not eaten since school lunch on Friday."

According to a 2013 story in the Daily Courier, the project fed 100 students each week in the HUSD, which had 62 percent of its students qualify for federal free or reduced-price lunch program.

Volunteers, who meet at the Prescott Valley United Methodist Church, create and deliver food packs to the schools, where they are distributed to children in need each Friday to take home with them.

The project has no overhead costs and all expenses are incurred by volunteers.

The LMLA gathered enough food items to fill the flatbed of a pickup truck through a two-week food drive and money donated by the organization.

For more information on how to donate to the Hungry Kids Project, call Tami Hitt-Wyant at 928-759-5012.